Microsoft Zune 80 has sub-par battery life

…and the world breathes a sigh of despair. Were you looking to scoop up a couple of Microsoft Zune 80s for your nephews, nieces, and gardner’s during the holiday season? If battery life is important to you, then you might want to think twice. CNET has just published the results of their recent battery tests, and the Zune 80 isn’t looking too good in the face of some stiff competition. According to CNET, the Zune 80 was only able to swing 22 hours of audio playback without Wi-Fi enabled. Turn on that wireless function and you’re looking at roughly 18.5 hours of playback. That’s great, but the 80GB version of the new iPod Classic was able to play for a staggering 45 hours before calling it quits. To be fair, the Zune does have a significantly larger screen than the iPod Classic, but is it worth a runtime that’s half as good?

I think my discman does better than that. Still, wifi and 80gb… tempting.

http://www.interscription.com Khidr

This is a seriously spun story. The new ipod does have an incredible battery life, but I don’t think that makes 18.5 hours with wifi bumping “sub par” If you have an hour commute to work then 18.5 hours gets you just about two weeks of playtime before you need to stick it on the cradle.

No doubt 45 hours is stellar, but I can’t imagine a situation when I’d need my mp3 player to play back for almost two solid days non-stop before I can (or want to) sync it/plug it in.

So really, I think it’s absolutely worth a runtime that’s “half as good”

just my thougths.

Arnette

My 3rd gen iPod get’s maybe 4 hrs and I’m getting by. Are you really going to listen to music for 2 days straight??

How does the video battery life compare? And when are we going to be able to subscribe to TV shows through iTunes? Damnit. So much potential pissed away.

http://zunecorps.com Nathan

Remember last year when 14 hours of battery life on the zune was amazing? 18/22 is fine for a good 95% of all people who just use it for normal use and wouldn’t use it more than 10 hours in a day. it gets charged at night.

And if your on a trip thats why they sell AC adapters and car chargers.

Granted the ipod can last longer but 18/22 is still pretty damn good.

Steve_Largent

MY 4g ipod runs about 8 hours, and it never let me down…so 18.5 is more than enough i guess

Sam Anderson

It beats the battery life on my ipod video!

Sam Anderson

It beats the battery life on my ipod touch!

Alphavirus

People just have fun nit-picking at the Zune because its not as “cool” or “hip” as the ipod. Functionally the Zune is much better than the ipod.
From the Zune site:
“Music, up to 30 hours (wireless off); video, up to 4 hours
Charge Time: 3 hours; 2 hours to 90 percent”
So 8 hours off the reported is not bad considering it has
“Size: 3.2-inch color display at 320 pixels x 240 pixels”

For 80GB, this is truly a steal. But no matter what, apple fanatics will never say Apple has bad products compared to the competition. Ha!

DKelly

Battery life – the Zune is good enough. Quality of sound? I don’t think the new Ipods are good enough – from user reviews I have read there is quite a difference.

Dtest5477

alpha, its all opinion, both ways. I dont see how functionally it better though. anything specific about how it is functionally better?

Jeff B.

They are hella nice but hey, my iPood video’s battery life isn’t good enough for what I need it for…so half the life…not nearly enough for me, even if they are hella cool.

Jeff M

My 5th gen iPod classic cannot even come close to 45 hours of music playback. I think I would’ve picked up the Zune if I didn’t get the iPod as a gift.

keymaker1

lol what a lemon lol, not to mention the screen is not even close to as bright as the classic. 5 minutes to Sync just 2 songby Wifi??? no thanx ill use a cable and get it over with in 10 seconds. have to handed to microsoft fanboys, lol there used to getting screw, apple fanboys go off for even 30 minutes and they settle for Zune being off by more than 10 hours, lol. battery life Decay over time you Know LOL thats why Apple when with the Extra 15 hours instead or the advertise 30

victor

For the most part as someone already said if you are doing the average the time is just about fine. I have ZVM (zen vision:m) and the bat life is ok. Still waiting to see if Creative releases a new High Capacity player. I mean nice choices but come on most companies now run in the low end the highest seems to be 16gb (although flash drive but still).

Snitch

well if you happen to own a Zune, battery problems is not something new , don’t believe me go to zune.net and hear it from real owners that have gotten already screw

rccpacte

what about the iPods supposed inferior audio quality. battery life < audio quality